This application claims the benefit of Japanese Application 2002-000208, filed Jan. 7, 2002, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to liquid heating cookers such as fryers and noodle boilers in which a heating medium such as cooking oil or water that has been filled into a vat is heated by a burner so as to cook foods such as French fries or noodles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional fryer 100 is shown in FIG. 6. The fryer is provided with a vat 110 into which cooking oil for deep frying foods, such as French fries and chicken, is filled, and the cooking oil in the vat is heated from the outside of the vat 110 through the combustion of a burner 120.
Broadly speaking, the vat 110 includes left and right side wall portions 115 that oppose each other, a front wall portion formed vertically (not shown), a rear wall portion 114 in opposition to the front wall portion, and a bottom wall portion 111.
The side wall portions 115 of the vat 110 include an upper side wall portion 115c forming a vertical wall, a middle side wall portion 115b sloping downward from the upper side wall portion 115c, and a lower side wall portion 115a extending vertically from the bottom end of the middle side wall portion 115b. The region enclosed by the upper side wall portion 115c, the middle side wall portion 115b, the front wall portion, and the rear wall portion 114 is a cooking zone X.
A relatively narrow deep well portion 112 is formed in the lower part of the vat 110, surrounded by the left and right lower side wall portions 115a and the bottom wall portion 111, and extending in the depth direction.
A pair of ceramic burners 120 for heating the cooking oil are provided on the left and right lower side wall portions 115a. The region below the burners 120 in the well portion 112 is formed as a cold zone Y that is only slightly heated. The cold zone Y is capable of holding oil sediment generated from the foods during cooking, thereby preventing deterioration of the cooking oil.
Outside panels 131 are provided the outside of the vat 110 to the left and right at a certain distance from the middle side wall portions 115b. The upper part of the outside panels 131 is bent and fixed to the upper side wall portions 115c. An exhaust duct 130 is formed between the outside panels 131 and the middle side wall portions 115b. The exhaust duct 130 conveys combustion gas from the burners 120 to the rear wall portion 114 via the middle side wall portions 115b, and discharges the combustion gas out of the fryer.
The burners 120 are caulked to an upper fixed panel 116a and a lower fixed panel 116b, each having a bracket-shaped cross section. Due to the caulking, a hermetic combustion chamber 129 is formed between the burners 120 and the lower side wall portions 115a, thereby preventing leakage of the combustion gas.
Because the burners 120 are fixed by caulking, however, if complications such as cracking in the ceramic plates forming the combustion wall occur, the burners 120 cannot be removed from the fryer 100 and replaced. Thus, it is necessary to replace the entire vat 110, which is formed in a single unit with the burners 120. Accordingly, maintenance costs are very high.
The liquid heating cooker of the present invention solves this problem, and it is an object thereof to reduce maintenance costs for the burners.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, and in order to solve the foregoing problems, a liquid heating cooker is provided, comprising:
a vat in which a heating medium is filled;
a burner for heating the heating medium within the vat by combustion so as to cook foods; and
a container for containing the burner so that its combustion surface is in opposition to an outside wall surface of the vat;
wherein a guide means for sliding the burner in and out and an access portion for the burner are formed in the container, so as to make the burner removable and attachable with respect to the container.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a liquid heating cooker according to the first aspect is provided, wherein the guide means is arranged so that the burner can be slid in the front to back direction, the access portion is arranged at a front surface of the container, and a cover for covering the access portion is provided in such a way that it can be removed from the container.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a liquid heating cooker according to the second aspect is provided, wherein the combustion surface of the burner faces upwards and heats a bottom surface of the vat.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a liquid heating cooker according to the third aspect is provided, wherein the container, by containing the burner, is partitioned into a combustion chamber formed between the combustion surface of the burner and the bottom surface of the vat and a non-combustion chamber formed between the bottom surface of the burner and the bottom surface of the container, and wherein a linking route for linking the non-combustion chamber with an air supply route of a blower for supplying combustion air to the burner is provided.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a liquid heating cooker according to any of the second to fourth aspects is provided, wherein when the burner is contained in the container, a combustion chamber partitioning wall for partitioning a combustion chamber, which is formed between the combustion surface of the burner and the outside wall surface of the vat, into left and right chambers is formed in the sliding direction of the burner.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a liquid heating cooker according to any of the first to fifth aspects is provided, wherein an all primary air burner is used for the burner.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the first aspect of the present invention configured as above, foods within the vat are cooked by heating the vat from the outside with the burner.
Should the burner break down, then it can be slid along the guide means and removed/inserted through the access portion of the container. As a result, it is possible to repair only the burner or to replace it with a new burner.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the second aspect of the present invention, to remove the burner, the blocking panel at the front surface of the cooker is removed and the burner is pulled out toward the cooker operator from the access portion of the container.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the third aspect of the present invention, the burner is provided below the vat, where there is available space, and thus the cooker does not become as large as when the burner is provided to the front, back, left, or right of the vat.
Additionally, the heating medium within the vat is heated from below, so that the heating medium is circulated while rising smoothly.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the non-combustion chamber and the blower are linked via the linking route, and thus air pressure from the blower acts upon the non-combustion chamber. Accordingly, combustion gas from the burner does not flow to the non-combustion chamber, even if airtightness is not maintained between the combustion chamber and the non-combustion chamber.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the combustion chamber partitioning wall is formed in the direction in which the burner slides, and thus when the burner is contained within the container, the combustion chamber is partitioned into left and right chambers.
With the liquid heating cooker according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, an all primary air burner is used, so that combustion is performed with primary air only and the burner can be operated at any angle, including sideways and downward orientations. Consequently, with the liquid heating cooker according to claim 6, there is a large degree of freedom as to the orientation of the combustion surface, making the arrangement of the burner easy.
Accordingly, there are few limitations as to the direction at which the burner is inserted and removed, which allows the access portion to be provided in a direction at which the burner is easily removed and also allows the burner to be arranged at a location where favorable cooking is achieved.